Mulcair to meet Marois Friday

Because there's more to Quebec politics than the national question.

Boom Boom wrote:

Brachina wrote:

Tom seems open to an exchange of ideas on how best to serve Quebec, but draws that line at seperatist disruption, understandable.

What a bunch of horse manure. Quebecers will decide if sovereignty is in our best interests, not Tom Mulcair. If Mulcair really wants to serve the interests of Quebec, let him listen to all sides openly and transparently. Mulcair knows full well where Marois stands. If he rejects out of hand her stance even before he meets with her, what's the point of a meeting at all?

Tom Mulcair is a Quebecer just as much as Marois and he has just as much right to weigh in on the "national question" as she does. He is the leader of an unswervingly federalist party - the NDP. So its a given that he will not meet Marois to say "I support your pish for Quebec independence"

Unionist wrote:

1. The right of all employees in airlines, railways, shipping, trucking, broadcast companies, banks - all federally-regulated enterprises - to work in French. Should be a no-brainer, given that Mulcair himself tabled it:

Quote:

"The idea would be simply to provide in the federally regulated work force in Quebec the same language rights that exist in the provincially regulated work force," said the NDP's Quebec lieutenant, Thomas Mulcair, who tabled C-455 in 2009.

It's not fully what the PQ wants (which is Bill 101, namely, that the language of work must be French), but it would be a huge step forward, especially for those private-sector companies which were never crown corporations and to which even the Official Languages Act doesn't apply. Examples: CP Rail, the banks, etc.

In Quebec that makes sense but not in various other provinces.  Any change like this would need to be carefully drafted otherwise a French speaker in BC would be guaranteed the right to work in French when no one else in the workplace even speaks the language.  While it is important in Vancouver that a French speaker from another part of Canada can access government services in their Official language it would be absurd to think that a bank employee would have the right to work in French when it is a language that less than 1% of the population list as their mother tongue. Being a French speaking teller who only works in French would be a very, very lonely job out here.

In your nation you can do what you want with language but it is clear that this is primarily a Quebec issue and Mulcair will have to expend political capital to bring it to fruition.  I wish he was as brave about other issues that are life and death matters.

Thanks, Bärlüer.

Kropotkin1951, I thought I made it clear that this is not only already official NDP policy, but it's the subject of a Mulcair bill facing the House. This isn't something Marois will need to lobby Mulcair for. Just remind him.

In any event, I hope everyone finds it strange that some large companies in Québec - CP Rail, for example - where probably 80-90% of workers are francophone, are under no legal requirement to communicate with their employees in French at all. At an FTQ conference, a delegate from one of the CPR unions said that paper pay slips had been abolished, and employees were now required to get them through the company intranet - using an English-only system. That couldn't happen at (say) CN or VIA or Air Canada, all of which are governed (for a variety of reasons) by the Official Languages Act. That's an example of an anomaly which must be corrected.